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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

So this isn't going to be a blog exactly. I did not take enough pictures, nor did I think about blogging it while I was playing it, but I did want to make a record of my experiences with it, including some tips I think would have assisted me in my playing. I have not read any other blogs about this challenge, so I did go into completely blind and I would say I would totally recommend doing that. You learn SO much about taking care of toddlers, and how far you can really push your parent!

Day 1: Day one started out great. I had bought the kids plenty of toys and they promptly went in and started playing. Now I originally went in thinking I would have mom spend some time with each kid throughout the day. That quickly fell apart as all the kids suddenly were going to need to potty train. So mom spent some time with one of the children and then had to begin the process of getting them all to the potty. I think I managed to get all but two. That is when I noticed the first toddler passed out on the floor, so I started trying to get the toddlers all to bed. Then....all hell broke loose. I spent the next 3 1/2 days forcing my mom to drink a lot of espresso, have no fun, no environment, very little social, and kept her near starving while trying to corral and care for the 7 energetic toddlers.

She did end up hiring a nanny twice, although the second time she never actually left, so I think she got stuck, which is the whole reason I managed to make it through this I think. I did not use the painting, however, if I do it again I think I would make sure to have it. Miraculously, against my best efforts, all 7 children managed to grow up well and one even grew up into platinum mood. Now, maybe I'm crazy, but for someone likes me who has trouble dealing with twins, I think this was quite an achievement. I am also proud to say my mom never passed out, never starved and only was warned 3 times by the social worker. (The first two were for the same child "starving" who mom was trying to get up from a nap and fed when the second one came).

Here are the pictures I did manage to take, so of them are pretty funny.

After about the second day I seemed to get kind of a balance together for how to go about taking care of the little ones. So here are the things I think I ended up doing well and would suggest others do.

1. Get an espresso machine, (especially if you don't have the painting). It not only gives your sim a little fun, but keeps them from collapsing.

2. Eat a lot of gelatin. This kept my mom alive, and a single helping will at least fill up the meter enough to take care of 3 or 4 kids needs before you have to eat again.

3. Put the babies in their own separate rooms. This keeps them from waking each other up, which really helped once I got one asleep, because ultimately another one was waking up by the time I got the rest asleep.

4. Give the kids something like the bunny that they can do together. I might have cheated a little because I got a couple of the kid tables which let a few of them play together. (It wasn't out when the game was created, but it didn't ultimately change my points at all....except possibly in the fact it kept the kids social up so I didn't get threatened by the social worker for that).

5. One thing I started doing at the end that I think really helped is I looked that the babies that were in yellow and I would pick the top one or the closest one really that was sort of random. Anyway, pick one that's in yellow, look at the needs and then go start to fulfill them. I know something I did a lot towards the end was I would notice that would need bladder and energy (or some combination), so I would potty train them, then when they were done I would hold them, tickle them, snuggle them and put them to bed. This kept their social and fun up, fulfilled a couple of needs and usually a few wants for the kids as well. It also let me rotate around to the different kids and not have all of them miserable because I tried to manage them all. I just managed them one at a time and eventually they all got what they needed.

Now, for things that I would redo:

1. Don't worry about buying anything expensive except for maybe a bed, and stereo (the kids like to "dance to it). The rest really doesn't matter because the environment is never going to be high with all the baby bottles and diapers laying around.

2. Do NOT stupidly make a neat sim like I did. I'm not sure what I was thinking, other than maybe she would pick up some of the bottles and change the babies on a changing table, etc. All that did was waste a LOT of time when I did get to give her a nap, etc.

3. Keep the house small. Mine got a little big, because I actually was trying to give my mom a few things that might keep her moods up, and realized it wasn't worth it, and more time was spent moving around the house then was really needed.

4. Get the painting!

Really, other than that I don't think there would be much I would change, but I do think I would try this challenge again.

Ultimately I ended up with 34 points when using the non-advanced scoring, and -5 points with the advanced scoring. Those passing out kids and diaper changes add up quick. Anyway, I hope my tips and ideas help you, and I will probably try again sometime and we'll see if they help me.

This neighborhood set up in The Sims 2 has all sorts of things that are going to be done to it. Gold Water was set up as a challenge neighborhood for some of the smaller challenges made for The Sims 2.

The first challenge is a Toddler Mania Challenge, and there will be more to follow, such as the Bachelor/Bachelorette Challenge, possibly the Lost challenge and others to follow.